Beating Back the Demons of Fear and Anxiety

(Or at least finding courage, and owning your life)

Oh what I’d give to be someone who is brave! Someone who wrestles with life like a Greco-Roman Athlete of the past. It must be nice to have nuts of steel. But some us suffer under heavier weathers. These are the clouds of anxiety and fear.

Brave persons are the ones who grab life like a bull by the horns. A job opportunity, seemingly out of your league? No problem. Research the bones out of it, and then put on your game face and win the bastards over. A girl who is dripping with vim and bursting with vigor, and every other guy in the place is beading lasers and strategies upon her? Bring on that competition! Out of the way, losers, watch how sheer confidence and hubris get things done! These are the conquests and playgrounds of the brave. I won’t say “the courageous”, because “courage” is quite a sport of its own. But those of us under the shadow of “fearfulness” know very little about the successes of the brave. We can only hope for courage.

Perhaps like some of you, I have walked the earth with thousands and thousands of “what ifs” and “second guessings”. I have been paralyzed by waitfulness and caution. But why? Was I trained this way? Perhaps. But not like a person who chooses such a class on a lineup of other options. “Ahhh yes, I think this semester I’ll take an advanced round of Timidity 303 with Dr. Pansyswinkle at 4:40 in the afternoon in Wimpypants Hall.”

I never wanted to be cowardly. I didn’t like feeling anxious. I didn’t even know how to shake these feelings of terror which would sometimes overtake me. But that’s what it’s like to not be naturally brave. Another sad part is that many people don’t know or remember that life doesn’t present itself in the same layout to all of us. This is one of the merits of those who are “Social Justice Minded”. For often SJWs are those people who get that everyone doesn’t start from an equal playing field. For some of us the hills to similar destinations are quite a bit steeper and take a hell of a lot more work.